Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
A couple weeks ago I wrote about navigation rules and touched on topics about right of way, conduct between two vessels, and signaling. In that article I mentioned an incident I had with a fellow in a small boat. That article prompted someone to send me an email citing that I had “missed a big point in the story” and how “big boats very seldom give little boats a break in O.C.” Considering it was my article and therefore my point to make, I’m not sure how I could be accused of missing anything. The point I was making was about navigation rules, not big boat vs. small boat. Aside from that, the fellow did bring up a good topic for discussion.
Friction between big and small boat operators has probably gone on for as long as there have been big and small boats, and I doubt it’s going to come to an end in any of our lifetimes. Of course, what constitutes a “big” or a “small” vessel is all relative to the deck of what boat you’re standing on at the time. Some fat-cat up on the bridge of his 65-foot yacht might think he’s top-dog on the pond until the day he has a cruise ship bearing down on him! I’ve got a 14-foot skiff that really feels small until I get close to someone paddling around in a kayak. Like I said, it’s all relative, and by having at least some understanding of what might be going on aboard the “other” boat, folks on different size crafts might find a way to spend time on the waters with a few less headaches and hassles.
Large boat skippers will argue that they are restricted to running in the channel, while small boats can often safely operate outside of it and small boat operators have no right to expect everyone to slow down just because they decide to stop their boats and fish in the channel. With a small boat, it’s quick and easy to come up on plane or fall back to idle speed. Big boats are different animals altogether. Speeding up and slowing down can be a hassle, taking time, distance and a lot of extra fuel to bring that much weight up to cruise speed. In some areas, a big boat might not be able to be brought back up on plane after it slows down because when it squats during acceleration the draft increases and it can hit bottom if the channel isn’t deep enough, and when a big boat hits bottom it can result in some very costly repairs.
Small boat owners make a good point that big boats should slow down in the channels because everyone is “responsible for their wake” and unnecessarily rocking could potentially swamp their boat as they go past. They’ll also site that regardless of the size of the boat, everyone has the right to have access to, and use of, our waterways without the fear of being put in an unsafe situation by someone in a large boat that passes too fast or too close to them. Having spent plenty of time on vessels of all sizes I’m inclined to agree that both camps have valid arguments.
Since channels are where most big and small boats interact, I think that we must first recognize that the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers design, dredge, mark and maintain channels with the primary intention of providing safe waterways for boats to transit. Channels are basically “roads” on the water, and just like roads on land are often used for things other than strictly transit (such as fishing), these activities must not inhibit the safe passage of vessels trying to run up or down the channel. I once had to get on my PA-system and ask a couple of boats that were fishing under the Rt. 50 Bridge to move so I could pass thru – that was pretty ridiculous! In relatively narrow channels or channels clogged with a lot of fishing boats it can sometimes be tough for a big boat to wiggle its way through unless the other boats do what they’re supposed to do and move out of the way.
But just because channels are made for transit and there’s no set speed limit doesn’t mean that those doing the transiting can go blasting along without concern for anyone else. As on roads, where we slow down or swing wide around pedestrians or bicycles, boaters must take into consideration every vessel they encounter in a channel and determine if the best action is to slow, swerve or keep on truck’n. Regardless of whether or not the person up ahead in the channel is right or wrong in their actions, safety must be the number-one consideration when making the decision of how to get past them. Just because someone is foolish enough to anchor their 12-foot jon boat in the inlet doesn’t mean that a big boat has the right to blast-past and swamp him. You can call him an idiot, stop and give him a lecture on boating safety or report him to the Coast Guard if you wish, but don’t be the one who sends him to the bottom just because he did something stupid to begin with.
So even though the big-boat-little-boat controversy will never go away, it could be a lot less heated if more skippers would be less bull-headed in their actions. If you’re in a small boat and you wish to fish the inlet or a narrow channel, you have to accept the fact that those areas are maintained for transiting boats of all sizes and you’d better be ready to get “waked” once in a while because you can’t just park your butt in a heavy traffic area and expect everyone else to alter course and speed just because the flounder decided that was the place to feed that day. Likewise, like it or not, if you’re running a big boat you have to know that when you get inside the inlet there’s going to be a lot of little boats everywhere you go, and it doesn’t matter if they’re doing right or wrong, you have to watch your actions and your wake to make sure that each pass is a safe one for every vessel involved.
I guess the best thing everyone can do is to follow the “golden rule” and treat other boaters as we would like to be treated outselves. And anyone who can’t do that should remember the “other rule” that “what goes around comes around”!
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
